News, Views and Product Reviews

Post navigation

Digital Designs IW6.5 In Wall Speaker Product Review

It is known that Digital Designs have been making Home Audio for quite some time now, in fact my understanding is that Digital Designs have been designing and building high quality products for Home Audio as far back as 1986.

So when Ashley ‘Madd Bass’ Burrell told me that Digital Designs had just released the IW6.5 In-Wall/Ceiling Speaker I had to have a listen, so for the next few days I hounded Ashley (As I do) for us to get a set in.

The first thing I noticed when I unboxed the IW6.5’s was the twin Silk Dome Tweeters, seeing that made me even more impatient since most speakers with Silk Dome Tweeters generally have beautiful clarity and a real refined sound to them. After glaring at the front for what would seem like an eternity I decided to check out the components before we got George & Ashley to mount them in the front wall of ABTEC’s Audio Lounge.

Once the Digital Designs IW6.5’s were mounted into the wall I let them have a few hours of play time before I had a listen, not because I wanted to give them some run-in time but more so because I knew Ashley would of wanted to have a good listen first.

Now that Ashley had finished listening to the IW6.5’s it was now my turn to have a sit down and try numerous songs from a wide range of music genres, during this time I only had the Digital Designs IW6.5’s running so that I was sure that every sound I heard was only from the IW6.5’s. Straight away I could hear the clarity and detail from the twin Silk Dome Tweeters, the woofers had a very clean mid-bass and nice distinctive kicks that wasn’t overwhelming which made the listening experience very enjoyable.

Now I had a good taste of the sound that the Digital Designs IW6.5’s produced it was time to do a little comparison to two other hi-end Branded (Which I will not name) In-Wall/Ceiling Speakers, the song’s I used for this was Pink Floyd’s Time & Guns and Roses’ Dead Horse.

First I listened to Time through the Digital Designs IW6.5’s and after that listened to it on what I would now call Speakers A & then Speakers B, straight away I could tell the differences in the Tweeters as the Aluminium Tweeters in Speakers A & B soon became harsh at the beginning of the song during the Grandfather Clock Bells and also during the Guitar Solo on the higher notes while the twin Silk Tweeters on the IW6.5’s held the notes smooth and true!

While listening to Dead Horse the Vocals & Acoustic Guitar on the IW6.5’s sounded natural and so so clean, I can’t emphasize on how clean they are to the point when I listened to the same song on Speakers A & B I was instantly disappointed. The woofers picked up the Drums and Bass Guitar sounds precisely and dominantly that it filled ABTEC’s Audio Lounge without any of the music breaking up.

Specifications

Crossover Frequency 12 dB/Oct

Frequency Response 60 – 20000 Hz

Impedance 8 Ohm + 8 Ohm

Input Sensitivity 86 dB

Magnet Ferrite

Magnet Weight 286 g / 10.1 oz

Voice Coil Diameter 25.5 mm / 1.0 in

Cutout Diameter 203.5 mm/ 8.01 in

OTHER SPECS / FEATURES

Nominal Power : 100 W

Coaxial Two Tweeter Two Way Design

Mono / Stereo switch

Stamped Steel Basket

Kapton Former

Rubber Surround

6.5″ Poly Cone Woofer

0.75″ x 2 Silk Dome Tweeter

Ferrite Magnetics

Precision Circular Wire Geometry

Shorting Ring to provide lowest distortion

Polyimide auto protective reset switch for tweeter

Overall the Digital Designs IW6.5’s have very beautifully natural and clean sound about them, even though I didn’t have a subwoofer running at the time I was listening to them I didn’t feel I was missing anything in the music.

I could easily see myself in the future buying the Digital Designs IW6.5’s in my own personal lounge or even gaming room, however in that circumstance I would be complimenting the IW6.5’s with my Digital Designs PS3 Home Theatre Subwoofer I run.

Also the fact you can run them Mono or Stereo makes very versatile and ideal for a multitude of uses! The Digital Designs IW6.5’s also come with one square and one round paintable grills for seamless room integration and attach via neodymium magnets for easy and secure on/off mounting.

In no way I could fault the Digital Designs IW6.5’s and in comparison to Speakers A & B sound price and style wise the IW6.5’s excelled, if you are in the market for some In-Wall/Ceiling Speakers come down to ABTEC and have a listen. I encourage you to bring your favourite tracks down and enjoy them on the Digital Designs IW6.5’s, you will not be disappointed!